Mr. Dehghan-Kia: An Accomplice to Creating Catastrophe for Iranian Workers | by Parvin Mohammadi of the Iranian Workers’ Free Union

This is the English translation of an open letter in Farsi by Iranian labor rights activist Parvin Mohammadi.
Her original document appears on the website of the Iranian Workers Free Union. Parvin Mohammadi is one of the named organizers of the labor petition currently circulating in Iran which has gathered more than 20,000 signatures so far. This letter responds to those who seek to undermine the efforts of repressed Iranian workers to demand their rights. Translation by Mission Free Iran.

Mr. Dehghan-Kia: An Accomplice to Creating Catastrophe for Iranian Workers

Between the pressures of the costs of living, lay-offs, job insecurity and delay in payment of wages, and the attempts by the Ministry of Labor to amend the labor law, the ratification and implementation of the anti-worker master/apprentice arrangement, lies the narrow space in which we eke out our existence. This space for our continued existence and livelihoods is contracting inexorably for us workers. Thus we, a number of workers, in our capacity as the coordinators of the workers’ protest petition, decided to express our protest against the status quo in a national dimension, and demand an immediate increase in wages that corresponds with the current levels of inflation.

The lives of workers, our very existence, is dependent on an immediate increase of wages. This issue is a matter of life and death for those of us who have signed the petition, and for millions of other workers across the country. In the face of uncontrollable inflation, the current minimum wage for workers has lost its value to the degree that a working family of 4 are literally driven to annihilation. This is why no honorable and just human being can deny the catastrophic situation of us workers and our justified demands for an immediate increase in the minimum wage.

However, as usual, there have been a number of people who, in defending the interests of their masters, are like bowls that have become hotter than the soup (1). I have not yet seen any employer claiming officially that the current minimum wage is sufficient for the lives of the workers. They don’t dare to do that. They give these missions, directly or indirectly, to known or unknown agents, to accomplish.

I do not care about those who draw a mask on their faces and, using a pseudonym, write in various sites theorizing about the utility or rather lack thereof of protest petitions. With the excuse that “protests should be much larger,” workers are inhibited by these people from signing the petition, preventing them from the least opportunity to protest. These are teachers of an extreme anti-worker nature. This is why they do not dare to put their names and identity under their critique of the workers’ protest petition.

But there is also another group: those who artificially carry the title of workers’ representatives and, making use of the opportunities and facilities provided by the government, have direct access to workers in factories. By using the catastrophic situation of the workers, job insecurity, and the desperation that has been forced upon the workers, these individuals theorize about the uselessness of protest against the minimum wage, and in this way, hinder the protest against the minimum wage.

One of these is Mr. Abbavi, the Chairman of the Board of the National Trade Association of Pharmaceutical Personnel and a full member of the National Center for the Trade Association of the Workers of the Country, who declares that a protest against the minimum wage should be carried out through legal organizations.

I would like to ask this person, “You who represent all legality, what have you done for us? Isn’t it true that every year, your signature and the signatures of others like you are scrawled on the documents that set the minimum wage that has driven our incomes many times under the poverty line?” With this person’s logic, no worker should protest against his or her lay-off or other violations of their rights unless the honorable office of this person and his honorable organization gives permission to do so! Mr. Abbavi! I assure you that workers would never ask you or anybody else for permission to survive and defend their existence.

Recently, Mr. Ali Dehghan-kia, member of the Board of the Center of Islamic Labor Councils of Tehran Governorate, in an interview on the 18th of Mehr (9th of October) with Mehr News said, “We need to take a very careful and practical decision regarding the minimum wage.” He continues: “At the moment, some companies have serious problems with paying the current wages and insurances for the labor force.” Needless to say, what Mr. Dehghan-kia means is that our dear capitalists already have a problem with the current level of wages and insurances, thereby discouraging workers from protesting against the current minimum wage which produces an income many times under the poverty line. And like a number of other so-called writers, in an effort to prevent workers from continuing their protest against the minimum wage, he declares, “It is impossible to believe that, with the uncontrolled increase in prices and the widening gap between the cost of living and the income of working class families, you can obtain any result [in terms of increased wages] by petitions and correspondence with the Ministry!”

Mr. Dehghan-kia! So what is possible? Is it possible to surrender to poverty and hunger? Is it possible to confiscate fruit, meat and milk from workers’ already-empty tables? To deprive our children of education? Engage in prostitution? Resort to drug use and trafficking due to economic insecurity and social desperation? Is it possible to send our children to the labor market?

Mr. Dehghan-kia! We workers know that for you and for people like you, these actually are possible and feasible options for workers. Mr. Dehghan-kia! Certainly from your point of view and that of people like you, we should not resort to gatherings and marches because these interrupt order and social security. From your point of view, we workers should not strike because strikes hurt the owners of capital. From your point of view, we workers should not demand our own self-made organizations, because then your business will go bankrupt.

In the continuation of this interview, Mr. Dehghan-kia invokes the leering bogeymen of lay-offs and unemployment for the workers, saying “If the factory cannot pay your wages by itself, it would certainly resort to an adjustment of the labor force. At the moment, it is as if there aren’t any new jobs created in the country, and it could be argued that there is negative job creation.” (2)

Mr. Dehghan-kia! The employers know how to solve their own problems – they have a whole government to guarantee their profitability through various preferential measures, and it has done so in every situation over the past 33 years. Why are you worried? Workers are being laid off every day, there have always been labor force adjustments, and of course there are going to be intensified. Tell us how long workers should wait in silence, scared of lay-offs and other threats?

Honorable Dehghan-kia! Rest assured that there is no color beyond black. (3) Be certain that workers have reached their limit and your condescensions will not stand in the way of workers’ protests and their demands for an increase in wages.

Mr. Dehghan-kia! We too have no doubt that while people like you accompany capital owners and governments to make our lives and our families’ lives miserable, a protest petition is the minimum of actions that the workers all over the country could undertake. We promise you and others who wave their pens around in the air that if our protest petition does not reach its objective, we will find a different way to defend our existence and lives. We promise you and the other pen flourishers, and hope that this does not prevent you from a good night’s sleep.Footnotes:
(1) “Bowls hotter than the soup” reflects a relation between servant and master that is similar to the epithet of “Uncle Tom” in the American context – one who betrays their group interests in the service of the oppressor.
(2) When he says that job creation is negative, it means that although there are new jobs created, they are insufficient to maintain parity with the number of jobs that are eliminated and the number of new workers entering the job market.
(3) “There is no color above black” reflects the greatest degree of saturation, the utmost limit, with the implication being that workers have reached the end of their rope.